The challenge

Our research indicates that school attendance, exclusion and low attainment at GCSE are factors associated with a higher risk of becoming NEET. 

Our aim is to increase engagement in education and training post-16, to reduce young people’s likelihood of being NEET at 18. To help address this, we need to know more about the kinds of approaches that are effective for supporting 13 to 16-year-olds and reducing their risk of becoming NEET. 

Currently, there is limited evidence on what works to improve employment outcomes for young people in this age group, especially in England. This is why we are developing and testing a robust, high-quality model of targeted support. 

What we’re doing

As the What Works Centre for youth employment, we conduct high-quality research and collaborate to put that into action in evidence-informed policy and practice.

Launched in 2024, the Building Futures programme will support at least 5,000 young people between 2024 and 2029.

Football Beyond Borders has been appointed as the delivery partner for the initial demonstrator phase of the programme, which will see 500 young people aged 12 to 15  receive personalised coaching, mentoring and wellbeing support over a whole academic year. Seven schools from areas with high NEET rates across the West Midlands, North West and London will be the first to participate. 

The demonstrator phase will consist of a test and learn approach with selected partner schools to help build the most promising version of this programme for wider delivery and testing. This will build to a multi-staged evaluation, including the undertaking of a gold-standard randomised controlled trial, which will test how mentoring influences employment outcomes later in life.

Building Futures draws upon our Youth Employment Toolkit, expanding and refining our understanding of different interventions and their effectiveness in a variety of contexts.